CONFIDENTIAL
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
Oud.
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FEC 014/1
लू
& Itk Filo
Fukin
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DIPLOMATIC REPORT No. 133/78
General / Economic (Q) Distribution
CHINA
13 January, 1978
CHINA AFTER THE FALL: A FIRM FAREWELL TO MAO'S EDEN
Her Majesty's Ambassador at Peking to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
SUMMARY
The new leadership has reversed many of Mao's hallowed policies (paragraphs 1-2).
2. Mao's name is still honoured but the doctrine of his infalli- bility is in tatters. His thoughts are quoted only to support pragmatic policies (paragraph 3).
3. Economic development and accelerated industrialisation have replaced the pursuit of egalitarianism as the primary aim of State policy. The new priorities and policies include:
(a) Production before class struggle (paragraph 6).
(b) More work, more pay. Restoration of labour discipline in
factories (paragraph 7).
(c) Respect for intellectuals including those with a Western-
style education (paragraphs 8-9).
(d) More book study, exams, discipline and less manual labour,
in schools and universities (paragraph 10).
(e) Interest in foreign defence technology (paragraph 11). (f) Positive approach to foreign trade (paragraph 12).
(g) Appreciation of Chinese and foreign culture from the past
(paragraph 12).
(h) Enforcement of discipline, discouragement of rebel spirits
(paragraph 12).
4. Teng Hsiao-p'ing is the chief architect, but has broad-based support (paragraph 14).
5. The march to Communism has been tacitly abandoned, but some important things have not changed (paragraphs 15-16).
(a) Basic structure of the State.
(b) Supremacy of the Communist Party.
(c) Primacy of agriculture.
(d) Rural communes.
(e) Conformity and puritanism.
6. Changes already set in train may generate forces of change which in the 1980s could break out of the limits imposed today (paragraph 17).
20962-133 10536-1
CONFIDENTIAL
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